Family affair
by suyetsumu
Summary: Skeletor and He-ManPrince Adam explore a relationship far beyond family affection. Don't take this too seriously ;-)


Family affair

Snake Mountain lay dreaming in deep silent mist.The sky above was dark, as always, and a cold, wet wind battered the castles craggy walls. Skeletor sat on his throne of bones, lost in thought. Once again, his attack on the Masters of the Universe had failed; but it didn't matter much – he could always try again, and he would do so as soon as another plan crossed his mind. His defeat was not what bothered him. But He-man did.

Only months ago, his vicory over King Randor and his pathetic forces seemed so certain, he even had the King himself in his hands. He had been so close to his goal. He had thought Eternia would be his and that boy, that son of Randor, that princeling whom he desired would be his also. But the boy, Adam did no longer concern him.

He touched the raw bone of his burnt face. His own acid had burnt him, he had robbed himself of every chance of inspiring love or desire in any human being. It didn't matter much, either. The chance that the young prince would take a like to his fathers mortal enemy was dim anyway. Prince Adam did not even know that he had been Keldor once, his father's beloved brother, his father's mortal enemy – that he had been a man once, with a face one could love, and with the capability to make love.

It wouldn't have mattered if only he had conquered Eternia. He would have thaught the boy to love him... But in his moment of triumph, with Randor at his mercy, He-Man had appeared, a fearsome young warrior, gifted with superhuman strenght. The kind of man who turns into a legend instantly. And he was so young, still almost a boy. His shining golden hair framed a face which had all the beauty of youth, yet was already well-defined and determined like a man's. He knew at once he had been beaten. He knew that he could not defeat this man, who had powers he could not fathom and a beauty he could hardly attack. Fighting this man would be his fate, forever his fate, he knew it – and yet he could never win this battle, since even his own heart betrayed him.

Prince Adam was forgotten – this was what he wanted, more than anything in the world, more than Eternia, more than power. And he could tell no one. Not his minions, who would laugh behind his back, nor his beloved enemy, who treated him with a mixture of derison and disgust.

Now all he had was his loneliness and his crippled desire.

A rustle of silk announced the arrival of someone. He looked up and saw the sorceress Evil-Lynn, his often unwilling companion in evil.

"Master, I heard of an object of power which might help was to defeat the Masters of the Universe!" she exclaimed, and laughed gleefully.

"What is it?" he asked impatiently. Evil-Lynn's "objects of power" proved as often useless junk as not.

"In the lost city of R'tun-Garantia lived an ancient people who had the ability to transform dead things into living flesh, master. Just imagine... we could build mighty armies and destroy Eternia. Castle Greyskull would be ours!"

That didn't sound too bad. Maybe it was worth a try, and he would be rid of Evil-Lynn and some of his other annoying minions for a time, too... "Tell me more!" he replied.

"The Garantians had some ancient magical device called the "Wand of Flesh", which allowed them to create living things out of dead matter. It is said to be buried in the tomb of their last king."

"Well, then bring me this object. And don't even dream of failing!"

Evil-Lynn nodded and withdrew, complainig under her breath as always.

And Skeletor brooded on.

But to his relief, it took Evil-Lynn some days to return. And when she came back, she brought the Wand of Flesh with her. He was quite surprised at her sucess.

"And nobody tried to interfere when you took the wand?"

"Erhh.... Men-at Arms and Teela where there too..."

"I'm quite impressed that you manged to bring back the wand nevertheless. How does it work?"

"Er... there was a stone tablet with explanations, but it got... lost"

"So Men-at Arms and Teela have it, right?"

"Er... Yes..."

"Go away! At once! You have to get that tablet back! Next time I won't be so mercyful!" Skeletor spat.

After Evil-Lynn had left, he sunk back in his throne, musing. A device which could turn dead things into living flesh... Oh, he could use this one, but probably not in the way Evil-Lynn thought of. He rubbed his bony cheek thoughtfully. If he could cover his bones with flesh again... His withered face and... those other withered parts...

He could be someone different. Someone He-Man could love...

His elation faded somewhat when he found that the solution for that problem was miles away.

It wouldn't be a big problem to lure He-Man to Snake Mounatin – he only had to catch one of his friends and that was easily done. But then what? He-Man would come, free his friend, and walk away, and he would have gained nothing.

Skeletor needed a plan, badly.

He twisted his staff in his fingers. Now that he had regained the instrument to make love, what else did he need. A face, certainly? But this was easily done... He needed only a little magic to give himself the illusion of a face. It would be only an illusion – if touched, the illusion would cheat no one, but he reckoned that that wouldn't matter if He-Man ever came close enough to touch him. He waved his staff, lost in thought, and stepped over to a mirror which hung dustcovered in a corner. When he saw the face he had given himself, he at first jerked away. Keldor's face! His own, old face, manly and handsome. It hurt to look at himself like that, to look at the man he could not longer truly be.

But then... He laughed again, long and malignant. He guessed that Prince Adam would like to know about this long-lost enemy of his father. He was pretty certain that the boy must have heard whispers and rumours about him. Maybe he even had an inkling of their relationship... Yes, he could catch Adam, and if he had him, He-Man would come.

He would go to the comfortable little hideout near the light side of Eternia. Noone knew about it but him. It would be an ideal place. No one would guess that it had anything to do with Skeletor....

He would write a letter, a good, old-fashioned letter. The little dim-wit Prince would come, and then... He grabbed a scroll of parchment and wrote down a few lines.

"Beast Man! Tri-Clops!" he shrieked. "Go and help Evil-Lynn to retrieve our stolen treasure! I've got a plan."

As his minions withdrew he threw back his head in diabolical laughter.

Evil-Lynn watched the castle of Eternia from afar. She was angry. Angry with Skeletor for sending her here all on her own, but even more angry with herself, for she had failed to retrieve the stone tablet so far and now Men-at Arms had taken it down to his lab deep in the dungeons of the castle. She needed a plan and yet nothing occured to her. Gradually a familiar deep, grunting breath advanced over the hillside. What in hell did Beast Man come here for?

"Uh Evil-Lynn!" he grunted. "Skeletor said we help you!" The other one was Tri-clops. As she was just about to vent her anger on them, a thought crossed her mind. If she used Tri-clops powers of seeing even the best hidden things, she would be able to steal the stone Tablets, if only she could enter the castle. And if she...

Suddenly a malicious grin crossed her face "Now I know! Well, Tri-clops, Beast Man, listen!"

Dusk enshrouded Eternia castle some hours later, when a strange party entered the premises. One of the new-comers was an old woman, with a benign face. But the old woman, though she seemed so friendly, radiated an almost palpable aura of power. The second one was a gigant man, his face hidden in a deep cowl. The third one, chained and looking very unhappy, was Beast Man.

The old woman adreessed one of the Guards courteously: "I'm Nyllive of the Eastern Provinces" she introduced herself. "We have traveled very far to bring this prisoner to King Randor". The guards gaped as they saw the well known form of one of their oldest enemies – Beast Man.

The royal family was taking supper when a panting guard burst into the hall and brought them the news. "A woman called Nyllive of the Eastern Provinces has arrived! She brought us Beast Man as a prisoner!"

For one monent, there was only silence. Then the little wizard Orko, who was hovering over the table gave a loud "Whopee" and sommersaulted in the air above the table.

"Bring them in at once!" ordered King Randor.

Men-at-Arms nodded "This is going to be an interesting evening!" he said. Prince Adam meanwhile rocked back in his chair a little and yawned, which earned him a disapproving look from Teela.

Soon two guards ushered the the guests in. The old woman bowed deeply, and said: "I'm

Nyllive, from the Eastern Provinces" she said. "I'm the wise woman of our village. Two weeks ago, a hunting party of our village noticed a fresh avalance in the mountains. They went to look wether there were any people in danger, when they found this one, covered by the snow and unconcious. They asked me what to do, and I recognized this enemy of our kingdom at once. We forged the best chains we could make and brought him here, for we didn't know what to do with him."

The king smiled. "That was no mean feat indeed!" he said. "Guards! Take the prisoner down to the dungeons!"

He then turned to the old woman and her companion. "Will you be our guests tonight?" he offered. "We will talk about our next steps tomorrow." The strangers agreed readily, and after a long supper they were shown into the best guestchambers Eternia castle had to offer.

In the middle of the night, the old woman rose and woke up her taciturn companion. "Come on, Tri-clops! Work has to be done! Shown me the way to the dungeons!" she hissed. "Awright, Evil-Lynn. Let's go" he mumbled.

They left their rooms on silent feet. It was no problem to slip the small parchment Skeletor had given them under Prince Adam's door. After they had fulfilled this part of their task, they went down to the dungeons. In Men-at-Arms lab there was still light. Silently they passed by the door, and entered the prison section. The guards didn't pose much of a problem, and they had soon freed beast man. Then they returned to the door of Men-at-Arms lab. Everything was dark now. Evil-Lynn opened the door quickly and took a small piece of slate from the desk.

She raised her wand triumphantly and then – in an instant – they were gone.

Up in his chamber, Prince Adam of Eternia woke from troubled dreams. "Something ist wrong, Cringer!" he muttered to the shivering green tiger beside his bed, and slid his hand around the hilt of his sword. Fire shot through his body as he spoke the magical words, and his mind and body warped, and he became He-Man. But it was to late. The thieves had gone, yet they had stolen nothing but a stone tablet, which Men-at-Arms already had declared worthless. Only when he later returned to his chambers, he found that they had left him a letter, too.

He slowly unfolded the parchment. The text was short enough. It only read:

"If you want to know the truth about me, Keldor, I will tell you, but I want to speak to you alone. Meet me at the place were light and dark meet, and I will tell you everything. Tell no one about this meeting, and bring no one with you. Keldor"

Adam Stared at the parchment in amazement. Who was Keldor? Why should he care about him, and why did he offer him to reveal the "truth"?

Keldor... the name stroke a very distant chord in his memory. He remembered that the name had been whispered when he was younger, when people thought him out of earshot. He hadn't heard the name for years. And old enemy of his father, as far as he knew, but there had to be something more behind this, or why would they have kept it secret from him? He dimly remembered that his father always looked sad when the name was mentioned, too...

Adam's curiosity was picked. He wanted to find out about this Keldor. But he didn't think that his father would be to happy about it, and it couldn't hurt to find out what was going on first, anyway. After all, he had his sword, hadn't he? If he was powerful enough to beat Skeletor, what did he need to fear?

He smiled. Life had been pretty boring in the last weeks.

Well, he would go and have a look at this Keldor...

"Come on, Cringer!" he said. " Lets have a little outing!" The big green tiger approached nervously: "It won't be... dangerous?" asked he. "I guess not." Adam smiled as the big cat relaxed visibly.

Sun never rose above Snake Mountain, but a pale half-light crept into the dark side of Eternia when mornig broke. Skeletor was in his own lab, contemplating the strange artifact that Evil-Lynn had brought him. Now that he had the stone tablet, the use of the artifact was no longer a mysery to him. Obviously the late king of R'tun Garantia had had problems not unlike his own. He would have smiled, if he still had facial expressions left. The legends were right, in a way. The Wand of Flesh certainly could bring life to dead things – but not quite in the way Evil-Lynn had thought of. The wand obviously could revive – or better replace – only one thing, but this suited Skeletor perfectly. The wand wouldn't give him armies, and it wouldn't give him back his face, but at least he would regain his power to experience consummate love. He carefully attached the wand to the lower part of his body. A warm pleasant feeling surged through his bones as he suddenly found himself a man of flesh and blood – at least in parts.

It was almost dark when Prince Adam reached the border between the light side of Eternia and eternal darkenss. He wondered if he was not better of as He-Man, but then again in all likelihood, this Keldor wouldn't reveal his secret to He-Man, and he could always change, or so he hoped. Still the place looked dangerous. A cave led down into a forbidding black mountain, covered in the dust and ashes which covered most of Eternias dark side. He squared his shoulders and stepped in. Cringer shrunk at the idea of entering the cave, but when he saw that Prince Adam went in, he followed him. After all, being left alone in a place like this was even more awful!

The cave led deep into the mountain, twisting and trurnig, but there never was more than one way to go, no place which was to small to get through. This cave was prepared, even if it looked natural.

He reached the end of the cave: a solid wall of rock, or so it seemed, but as he touched it, the rock melted away into thin air. What Adam saw behind the illusionary wall seemed quite out of place: A room, covered in thick carpets, a fire-place with a merry fire in it, and two armchairs, one on each side of the fireplace. On at small table stood a decanter filled with red wine, and two glasses. One was already filled. In one of the armchairs sat a man, his face turned towards the fire. "Come in" the man said with a high cracking voice which reminded Adam of something he just couldn't yet lay his fingers on. He approached the fireplace cautiously, but the man did not move at all. "Sit down and take some wine." The stranger offered, and turned to the little table. He filled the empty glas from the decanter and poured some more of the wine into his. The man was dressed in scarlet robes, and his face lay inside a dark cowl. The face reminded Adam of someone: It was a face neither old nor young, with a brown beard and even features, but he just couldn't fix on which person it reminded him..

He sat down in the free armchair, but didn't touch the wine. "I am here." he said. "Now tell me who you are, and what do you want off me."

The other man didn't reply immediatly. Only after a lenghthy pause did he answer: "I am Keldor. Among the things you have to know ist that I was your fathers enemy once."

"And what are you now?"

"Somewhat elder and wiser" answered the high, screechy voice. Adam wasn't sure if there was not a trace of ironic laughter behind the overtly serious tone.

"And what do you want?"

"Lets put it like that. Your father and I had a disagreement about the sucession once. I had some claims to the throne, and I wasn't convinced your father was the right man for it. Our quarrel got out of hand, and now we have been enemies for years. I don't care for this quarrel any longer, and I would like to end it. I don't want to be your fathers enemy any longer."

Adam frowned. "And what do you want of me?"

"I want you to make peace between us... nephew."

"Nephew?!"

"They didn't tell you that, I suppose... But yes, I am your fathers brother. And I'm tired of this. I want peace. I want my family."

The man sounded lost and wounded. Nothing about the situation seemed dangerous any longer. Silence lay heavy on the room. "Will you fulfill my request?" asked the man with a quivering voice.

"I will see what I can do..." Prince Adam said finally.

His newfound uncle raised his glass. His face shone with delight. "Then drink with me – to peace."

Adam cast caution to the winds – it wasn't exactly his nature anyway – and raised his glass too. He drunk, when he had seen the other man drink. He had seen him pour both glasses of the wine from the same decanter, hadn't he?. But then the world around him turned into swirling blackness, and he cursed his stupidity. The poison must have been already in his glas, or whatever. Had he only been He-Man, he would have laughed at such an attack, but he was only Prince Adam. He heard the stranger laugh – a well known, high-pitched laughter – as he fell into darkness.

When he awoke he found himself in what seemed to be the typical dungeon: A dark room, bare stone walls, no window. He was shakled to the wall, as was to expected. Cringer was nowhere to be seen, and his sword was gone also. In his present form, he had no chance to tear the chains which held him.

He tried to concentrate, to reach out with his mind to Sorceress, but his head started to swim at once, and he felt that he could not reach out far enough.

So he was in deep trouble for once! He did not know what to do besides waiting. By now Teela should have found that he was missing – they would soon come loking for him. And this man who claimed to be his uncle certainly would not kill him at the moment – he probably needed him as a hostage. He had to wait. Sooner or later he would find a way to get to his sword, and then everything would be alright. He only hoped that nothing had happened to Cringer.

Adam was still lost in though when the door to his prsion opened and Skeletor entered the room. So he had recognized the voice alright. He felt a surge of panic. Now he was really in trouble! Skeletor would probably not kill him right now, but he was a formidable enemy, and if he found out about the sword... Prince Adam shuddered unconciously.

Skeletor watched him for some moments, then threw back his head and laughed. "Hehehehehe, Prince Adam, I've got you! And when He-Man comes to free you, I will catch him to, hehehehehe..."

It wasn't likely though that He-Man would come, Prince Adam thought bitterly.

Skeletor came closer now, and a strange fire burnt in his seemingly empty eyeholes. "Do you think that I lied to you, Adam? Do you think that I betrayed you?" he whispered gleefully. "I might have betrayed you, but I didn't lie to you. The story I told you is true. Except the part about peace and family of course, hehehehehe..."

Skeletor looked at his catch with relish. He had captured Prince Adam because he wanted to catch He-Man of course, but now that he had him helpless before him, he remebered just how much he had desired the boy once. He came even closer, and caressed Adams cheek with one bony finger.

"I want He-Man for myself. He will come to help you, and then he will be mine... allthough I can't say that I am not interested in my family" he breathed.

Adam regarded the situation with growing amazement. So that was it was Skeletor wanted from He-Man? He curesed his own stupidity once more. Why had he not seen that all of Skeletors attempts to kill him had failed, because he didn't _want_ to kill him? Because what Skeletor wanted was far from his death?

He smiled. So Skeletor had felt that attraction, too. When he was He-Man, he was the mightiest man in the universe. He had no equal. Only Skeletor came close to him in power. Oh, he had felt the attraction, that much was certain. He had not been able to kill Skeletor either, and he never would be, for what would all his power be without a worthy enemy?

He almost smiled, aware that Skeletor was still caressing his cheek. So Skeletor did not only care for He-Man, did he? He would also bestow his graces upon his ... his old enemies son.

He sighed inwardly. This was not quite how he would have wanted things to be. On the other hand... He-Man could have never give in to Skeletors desires. But now he was Prince Adam, easy, irresponsible Adam. He needn't be a hero today.

"He-Man won't come. He will come for others, but not for me. He will send some of the other Masters, but he himself will not come." he said.

Skeletor pressed closer to him, then started to tear away his shirt. "Off course he will come, my little prince. But we have time until then..."

Adam felt sudden amusement. If Skeltor had known that what he desired was already there... He was beginning to enjoy the situation. He could do so, being Adam. He didn't need to be overly moral, or invincible either. He pressed his body against Skeletors bony limbs a good as his chains allowed it, and to his amazement found an enormous hot erection where he would have thought that there could be only cold bone.

"Do you like my magic device?" Skeletor panted pressing him against the wall.. Adam curved against him.

"Will you show me this magic?" Adam sighed.

"Oh believe me... I will!" replied Skeletor, hastily unlocking the chains. Together they sunk to the flower, panting and clattering, and Skeltor ripped away Adams clothes with brute force. But Adam was scarcely less eager in undressing Skeltor. Beneath the blue suit there was only a mess of flesh melted almost to the bone, but it didn't matter to Adam, for between the hips there was red, living flesh, and Adam was almost shocked at the size of Skeltors erection. The thing shimmered wetly and looked as if it wasn't a part of that emaciated body...

But all those thoughts were forgotten when Skeletor pressed him down to the ground. Without further ado he and rammed his cock between Adams legs, to discover that space inside Adams body where no man had been before, and to fill him to the brim. Adam cried out in mixed desire and pain, as the world around him began to swirl.

Hours later they lay in bed together, Skeletor fondling Adams cock lazily. He had taken him on the dungeon floor twice, and when the pain became to much for Adam's desire, they had exchanged the dungeon floor for this sleeping chamber. Adam was still asleep, exhausted. Skeletor would have loved to do something for Adam's needs, considering how hard he was, even in his sleep. Unfortunately, he lacked both lips and other organs to do so... and the time. Adams friends would come here soon enough, and then he would be in trouble. He was exhausted, like he never had been before, and he felt strangely mellow and confused. Nothing in this experience had been as he had expected, and least of all the passion he had shared with this boy, whom he had thought to treat with contempt.

"Goddbye, little Prince" he whispered, and got up. You know where to find me... " he left the room, and the cave, and went back to Snake Mountain, to do what he had to do.

Adam smiled as he saw him leave, being by no means asleep as he had pretended.

"Goodbye, dear enemy!" he whispered "We'll meet on the battlefield soon..."

He laughed softly and got up go looking for his sword.


End file.
